The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-17
FEMALE SUPES.
The Hard Luck of Many Women Who
Become Stage Struck.


conrt pageants of the stage. You know how
they come filing in, after the soldiery and III
front of the kings pages, bestowng them
calves in an awkwardly expectant half-circle
inst before his majesty appears You have
noted them evening after evening prone
padinC on the arms of their escorts in and
o,t of the ballroom, and to and fro in the
conservatory behind it, never venturing too
near the footights, i'll the great palace rev.
elrv scene. Who are they of the ill-t1tting
evening dresses, they of the dingy blue mus
lin and the crumpled paper roses, the walk
mo ladies. the women supelS OF the footnght
world Where do they come from, how do
thew hapDen into the business, how many
are there of them, who hires them, who
dresses them. and what are they paid
The ballet girls tights and scanty draper
ias have inspired a literature, but the wo-
man sl1pernumerary is creature unknown.
IF Won were to happen around at the stage
door on Monday morning early you might
GET a neep at her without the disguise of her
make I'D or her title on. A factory hand of
the better sort or a shop girl you might sup
nose her. in that maid-of-all-work brown
Gown. with the button holes of her jacket
Vawning a trife and tired looking feather
in her hat.
There is a masquerade scene cast in the
piece that evening" she will tell you, and she
is on the ground looking for chance to take
a mummer's part. She has been ballet
girl in the Black Crook" at Niblo's all win
ter. but she caught an obstinate cold, and
they put her off the stage because she cough
ed She was a circus girl before she mar
ried-this YOU will find out as she grows
confidential-and, indeed you may have
with Ro whom cba
posed in the sawdust ring as the original
three-headed woman for the great moral
show. Her husband is doing tumbling tricks
in the clowns dress to-day; but she finds it
better to keep a home for the babies, picking
up a stray dollar here and there as ballet
girl this week, supe the next, for this thea
tire or that
1t is three weeks since she saw the foot
lights, and she is nervously anxious to be on
the boards again. The manager is busy and
slow to send for her. and she is afraid of
missing her opportunity because she doesn't
own a dress with train. She has two or
three peasant gowns, she will assure you,
tights in all sorts of colors, a servants outfit
with apron and mob cap, a short dancing
dress, but, alas and alas, she has cut up her
long evening gown. She wonders if the
company will pay for it if she hires dress
at a costumer's, and she says she thinks they
might considering her experience and the
fact that she has more than once taken a
small speaking part.
There is Il little army of women supes
looking for bread and butter about New
York. Niblos employs great numbers of
them on occasion, as do Wallack's and the
Union Square. They are to some extent in
Interchangeable with the ballet and the chorus
girls, but for the most part form class and
very distinct class by themselves. To act
as walking woman has become for them a
regular business, and they look to the thea
tres altogether for a living, belonging to the
stage as exclusively as do the stars. They
appear before big audiences nightly, but
they have no fixed connection with one house
more than another, no engagement beyond
aweek or fortnight or the run of a single
play In duration, and they never travel with
any company out of town. Society drama
calls for half n dozen of them uptown to-
nSht, While perhaps couple of hundred are
nspornnS iii spectacle downtown. The
supe has her name on the books of ten to
nlteen managers, and each one sends for her
turn.
She wears her girdle and her flowing robe
WIN what grace she can muster in the train
Of the Empress Theodore with Bernhardt
Ens Week. She was a grand dame at the
Cupuiets ball with Margaret Mather last
week; she VIII dance with the village maid
els on the green in some German play of
Thlch she understands not word on the
Ebowery at the Thalia next Monday evening
one gets pretty familiar with the dressing
!VoillS OF every theatre III town and is bet
Wr known to the managers than the ma
Jority of actors whose names are on the play
bills. " -'''0 -'''i''' a. . va 'io t-'''
From the supe's standpoint it is more
WOHLiiDlo to hA thap a
twenty-five cents will hire bucklam war
tlof 70 carry a pasteboard helmet once across
ue stage Fifty or seventy-fiva cents will
alsdSe ms prowess throughout the fiVe-act
war Six dollars n week is about the least
sun Ior which you can get an additional
palr OF bare shoulders to grace the DRAWN g
aoolh festivities, and eight dollars is Il II ial
sgugush reward for swelling the grand court
The supers clothes nave tiic,, Of not 1T
ny hel. but this is not alwuya the Supers
!sult. The company supplies the costumes,
y" !" =" mas any weak scrupleS about nationality
o a, N9' and the gowns are dealt out in aver
ah1 Sizes, perhaps fifteen minute before the
.iululh IS rung up. Tho thin g,rl and the
Euuhp Slrl arrange matters a. best they can
tween them; but the haunting conscious
'@ vi hooks and eyes that won't meet Or
WI s.O' mat yearn TO lap over is oftener than
,,.. g iiolc III lace ana attitude oU the
10y critical moments o. the scene. The
sil VINO costumes herself as she does for all
sp cheaper companies can show tenderer
,,vsard Tor the weaknesses and the strong
p'.l'S oil her own figure. but her wages as
S V,u 'afei with the stars salary make their
Ss"45 oId companions to cross the stage
Aie b. side.
o. lie suler is wooden, and thia Is because
ppo 'u ai's Is stage struck. The chances arc
N ''" out OF ten that if shc has only 10 rush
c "Ith a score more TO see what al! the
gnuhoIon Is about whom the villain rouses
s Auect to catch the hero in on awkward
"e-the chances are that in all the melee
WIZ leel as IL tho eyes of the audience
vyi, liked on her alone, aud that the notion
o5i,. urn . her into a jumping juck that moves
Wa, WIN spasmodic jerks The worry fact
ro,t sle mas nothing 10 say and Little or
o,,IlAS 70 do makes the situation more
AN ward 80 one Of the guild told me the
b,', ne evening, and keeps the solf-oonsciou3-
a. ~ rom wearing away. The old stagers,
ib'G'y eau thom behind the scenes, rub Off
49,, eni uairalsnlsAt IN time, and some Of
m, Iup on their ambition with H.
a.. 'bnaAodd perhaps. toallude ID n stipo's
49, isnis, bul few of the Younger ones are
gin soaring plans. They meant 10 be-
t,e,- gliels or l.eahs, and whom fate iu the
49,. Yt az 0ldullitG lnanas,,r has rofuod
49, Ni'Y start az tlo bottom Of thc llddof
'Heae eonlQeaes llal u viii pr0ye